India's wholesale inflation rate slows down to 1% in March 2020

India's annual rate of inflation, based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), slowed down further to 1 per cent for the month of March 2020 as compared to 2.26 per cent in the previous month and 3.1 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year due manly to lower food prices.

An official press release, citing the provisional data released ehre today, said the WPI for All Commodities (Base: 2011-12=100) for March 2020 declined by 0.90% to 121.1 from 122.2 for the previous month.

It said the build-up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.00% compared to a build up rate of 3.10% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The release said that the rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index consisting of Food Articles from the Primary Articles group and Food Products from the Manufactured Products group decreased from 7.31% in February 2020 to 5.49% in March 2020.

According to it, the final WPI for 'All Commodities' for the month of January 2020 stood at 123.4 as compared to 122.9 provisionally reported on February 14, 2020. The annual rate of inflation based on the final index stood at 3.52% as compared to 3.10% reported on that date, it said.

The release said that, due to the coronavirus outbreak and the nationwide lockdown, the provisional figures of WPI for the latest month are computed with a low response rate. The figures are likely to be revised in a significant manner during the release of the final numbers.